Garment hanger



May 6, 1952 WYATT 2,596,001

GARMENT HANGER Filed March 21, 1950 INVENTOR ATTORNEYS Patented May 6, 1952 UNITED STATES PATENT QFFICE 2,596,001 GARMENT HANGER EawmF. Wyatt, Raleigh, N. 0. Application Marc-11 21, 1950, Serial No. 150,891

1 Claim. 1

lhis invention relates to a garment hanger, adapted to be fashioned from wood, plastic), or any other suitable material, and novell-y designed to include a spring acting means" for securely gripping a skirt or trousers suspended from said hanger.

An important object of the present invention is to provide an improved garment hanger in which is embodied a spring acting trousers or skirt gripping means that will be capable of swift and easy operation.

Another important object is to provide a garment hanger as described in which the design of the hanger is such as to permitit-to be readily fashioned from either wood or plastic without departure from the spirit of the invention.

Still another object is to provide a garment hanger as described wherein the spring acting portion thereof can be releasably latched in inoperative position.

still another object is to provide a garment hanger as described which can be manufactured at low cost considering the benefits obtained thereby, will be durable, attractive in appearance, and easy to use.

With the foregoing and other' o'bjeots in: view which will appear as the description proceeds, the invention consists of certain novel details of construction and combinations of parts hereinafter more fully described and pointed out in the claim, it being understood that changes may be made in the construction and arrangement of parts without departing from the spirit of the invention as claimed.

Referring to the drawings Figure 1 is a front elevational view of agarment hanger constructed in accordance with the present invention.

Fig. 2 is a fragmentary exploded perspective view on an enlarged scale showing the attachment of the supporting hook to said hanger.

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary enlarged perspective view of the spring acting connection between the stationary and movable portions of the hanger.

Fig. 4 is an enlarged section taken on line 4-4 of Fig. 1.

Referring to the drawing detail, I provide a pair of downwardly diverging arms I and 2 of identical formation, the inner ends of which abut and are formed with opposite vertical grooves 3 in which is swivelly mounted the lower end of the supporting hook 4 having the annular groove 5. The supporting hook is secured to one of the members, the member 2 in the present instance, by means of a staple 6 straddling 2 the groove 5 and extending into the inner end of the arm 2.

After the hook 4 has been mounted in this manner, the arms I and 2 are fixedly connected by means of corrugated fasteners 1.

Between the spaced apart lower ends of the arms I and 2 is extended the bottom bar 8 which cooperates with a clamping member in a manner described hereinafter in the support of skirts, trousers, or other garments, not shown. This is rigidly and permanently secured to the outer ends of the arms I and 2 by means of nails 9 or other fastening means.

In the present instance I have illustrated the hanger as being formed from wood material, but it will be understood that this is merely one example of a construction for which my hanger is adapted. The hanger is equally well adapted to formation from molded plastic material or the like, and it will be appreciated that if the hanger is formed from such material as molded: plastic, the arms I and 2 might be integral with each other and with the bar 8. In such an instance, additionally the swivel'led supporting hook 4 might be rotatably mounted in a metal shell embedded in the plastic, and this expedient is considered sufficiently' obvious as to require no special illustration.

When the hanger is formed from. wood material, across member H3 is secured at its ends to the medial portions of the respective arms I and 2, so as to'be extended parallel to and above the bar 8. If the hanger were formed from plastic material, instead ofacross member [0 a depending tongue or similar projection might be provided extending downwardly from the upper end of the hanger. The cross member Ill, or the tongue in the case of a. plastic hanger, are simply intended to provide a stationary base on which a spring acting trousers gripping means canbe mounted in a manner to be presently described.

In the present instance, in the lower edge of the cross member ID there is formed the transverse slot ll, communicating at its upper end with the groove 12 formed in the rear surface of the cross member, and extended through said slot and groove is one leg I3 of a spring member having the upwardly extended portion l4 extending upwardly from and integral with the leg l3, the upwardly extended portion 14 merging into the coil spring [5 seated in the shallow recess I8 that is formed in the front surface of the cross member [0.

At its other end, the coil spring I 5 merges into 3 the leg I! overlying the front portion of the upwardly extended tongue [8 of the trousers gripping means, said tongue I8 being formed with the transverse groove IS in its front surface re- 7 ceiving the leg I! of the spring. In this connection, both the leg l3 and the leg I! at opposite ends of said spring are of L-shaped or right angled configuration, each extending in an opposite direction, that is, toward the opposite end of the spring.

By reason of this arrangement, it may be noted that the spring provides a fulcrum or pivotal mounting for the trousers gripping means, said trousers gripping means comprising the movable portion of the hanger, that is pivotally mounted upon the stationary portion of said hanger. The pivotal mounting of said trousers gripping means, in this connection, is a spring acting mounting, this being provided by reason of the oppositely extended legs one of which overlies the rear surface of the stationary portion of the hanger represented by the cross bar l0, the other extending across the front surface of the movable portion of the hanger represented by the tongue 18, the coils or convolutions of the spring being interposed between the respective stationary and movable portions and being disposed in shallow recesses formed in said stationary and movable portions. The tendency of the spring, as will be seen, is to return the trousers gripping means to the position shown in Fig. 4, that is, into engagement with the stationary part of the hanger.

The tongue I8 is integral with the flat flared body 20 of the trousers gripping means, that is formed at its lower end with the oppositely extended end extensions 2|, having longitudinal contact with the inner surface of the bottom bar 8. Thus, the trousers gripping member is normally forced by the spring into engagement with the bottom bar, so as to grip tightly trousers, skirts, orany other garments that might be positioned between said bottom bars thus to prevent their slippingfrom the hanger.

When the hanger is made of wood, I provide the felt pads 22 and 23 interposed between and adhesively secured to the bottom portion of the movable part of the hanger and the bottom bar .8 respectively, so as not to wrinkle or damage any garment gripped therebetween. When the garment hanger is made of molded plastic material, the bottom portions of the stationary and movable parts of the hanger would simply be grooved, so as to grip securely the garment suspended from the hanger.

Again, it may be noted that if the hanger is made of plastic or the like, the flared body portion 20 could be cut out or formed with a large central opening for saving material.

Secured by screws 24 or equivalent fastening means to the tongue I8 is the angularly extended lower end 25 of the lever 26 that normally extends outwardly and obliquely from the garment hanger, this being formed at its upper free end with a hook 21 adapted to be engaged by the spring catch 28 secured to the upper end of the hanger.-

By reason of this arrangement, it will be apparent that should it be desired to place the trousers gripping means in an inoperative position,'one need simply press the upper end of the lever 26 toward the hanger, and this will cause the extensions 2! to be moved away from the bottom bar 8 against the action of the spring 15. Ultimately the hook 27 will be engaged under the safety catch 28, and this will hold the movable part of the hanger out of engagement with the bottom bar until such time as its further use is desired. At that time, one need simply press upwardly upon the safety catch 28, thus to release the hook 27, and this will permit the spring 15 to return the gripping means into engagement with the bottom bar 8.

What is claimed is:

In a garment hanger a pair of rigidly connected, downwardly diverging, coat-supporting arms; a straight bottom bar rigidly connected at opposite ends to the lower ends of said arms and extending between the arms; a second bar constituting a base and rigidly connected at opposite ends to intermediate portions of the arms and extending between the arms, said second-named bar being disposed in parallelism with and being spaced above the bottom bar, both bars being of reduced thickness as compared to the thickness of said arms, the second-named bar having an upwardly extending slot formed therein intermediate its ends, said slot extending transversely of the second-named bar, the second-named bar having a shallow longitudinal recess; a coil spring having legs extending laterally thereof at opposite ends, one leg of the spring extending through said slot and being hooked upon the second-named bar, said spring being seated in said recess; a gripping member having a tongue at its upper end and having an elongated clamping bar at its lower end extending in longitudinal alignment with and alongside the bottom bar, said gripping member being of reduced thickness as compared to said arms, the gripping member, and bars, together being confined wholly within the plane of said arms, the gripping member having a shallow recess formed in the tongue thereof in which the other leg of said spring is seated, the spring constituting a pivot for pivoting of the gripping member upon the secondnamed bar; a spring latch extending obliquely from and rigidly connected to said tongue, said spring latch extending upwardly from the tongue; and a spring catch mounted upon said arms at the point of convergence thereof, said spring catch being adapted to engage the latch releasably when the gripping member is pivoted outwardly from the bottom bar.

EDWIN F. WYATT.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Patrick .July 4, 1950 

